Challenge: Speed-cleaning

[yvi]

It's Saturday (in most of the world right now, at least, I think only four time zones have reached Sunday yet) and Saturday is the day that many people tackle household tasks.

So today I finally got fed up with the absolutely dreadful state of my office, which had been a storage room while my pet was in hibernation. Well, she's been awake for almost a month now and it was still never tidied. This picture already looks not so clean and tidy and that was two months ago - it has gotten even worst since then.



And I am not exaggerating when I say it has gotten way worse - the right desk was completely cluttered, the left one pretty much, almost no floor even visible, old computers standing around, etc.

So, I finally got fed up today. So I told myself I'd spend half an hour just tackling the big stuff. 30 minutes, no distractions, focusing on the big things instead of getting side-tracked by the details. And in that 30 minutes I managed to:
* put away all my laundry
* get the bike and the bag with old clothes out into the floor so I can carry them down Monday
* picked up the puzzle that took up so much floor space - we were planning to glue and frame it, but that "were planning" has been going on for months now, so packing it away made more sense
* put all official documents on one pile to sort later
* put the electronics and computers on another pile and the monitor back on the desk+
* threw away the garbage lying around on my side

And that was 30 minutes and it looks so much better now. Another 30 minutes tomorrow and my side might look remotely tidy. Another 30 minutes and it might even look clean.

So, that's what 30 minutes can go. So here's my challenge: Pick a Thing you have been putting off way too long now (cleaning the fridge? sorting the yarn stash? cleaning out the wardrobe?). Tell me about it her and get your encouragement :) Pick an hour of the weekend where you are not busy with something else and then just do the Thing for 30 minutes. Afterwards, relax for 30 minutes and tell us what you accomplished.

Comments

[ar]

My mother's always gone with the Fly Lady doctrine, which states that you can get a lot done in fifteen minutes. This is an excellent post, and I agree entirely with it, though I do best, personally, in a fifteen-minute chunk.

This weekend, there're several things I need to stop putting off cleaning: the shower and bathroom area in particular. So maybe I'll get the roommate to do either the stovetop or the inside of the microwave at the same time, and we'll really have something going. :D

And good work on your own pile of stuff to do! You got a lot done yourself.

[ninetydegrees]

I cleaned one more cabinet and a drawer in my kitchen which leaves me with just one cupboard, a drawer and the top of the cabinets to clean (but I'm too small for the latter and need to buy a stepladder first). My kitchen is nearly perfectly clean! \o/

[shiny_crystal]

I tend to do little stuff while I'm in the place anyway. Today, while I was in the kitchen and my tea was brewing, I reorganized my storage cupboard and threw away anything past it's best-before-date. Similarly, I did the washing up while the water for my noodles was heating up.

More to be done, though. I should start setting a timer for household tasks again ... it works for writing. 30 minutes is a good span :)

[schnurble]

Haven't looked at this Flylady stuff, but I also find that doing things in a short time frame is much more effective than having hours for it. Because if you know you have only a few minutes, you're much more inclined to concentrate on what you're doing and not get side-tracked by details.

I usually spend a few minutes in the morning before leaving for work or in the evening after getting home before Hubby comes home on household stuff. Like put dirty dishes into the dishwasher, wipe the kitchen counters, clean one thing in the bathroom (toilet, sink, shower, bathtub or floor), put some stuff away... One thing is quickly done, and work doesn't accumulate so I don't have to spend a big portion of my weekend with cleaning and tidying up :o)